Still need to hammer out a history for Nordamark, but most of everything else is set.

Basically Nordamark was once a major maritime power during the feudal era and age of sail, with a large and powerful navy and even larger merchant fleet. An economic, military, and political power player once. But with the age of steam, decades of peace, political power shifts towards nations of industry and airships, Nordamark's slipping behind on the military and political fronts because it can't industrialize fast enough and doesn't have large amounts of coal, made worse by apathy of the previous ruling nobility until the beaurucrats of state made a quiet changeover. So it is now refocusing on its economic and "soft power" strengths to keep up until it can find a way to build up its industry and technology, and avoid getting into wars in the meantime. A tricky prospect considering Nordamark is a nation-sized moneymaking machine.